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Airline cancels flights due to Middle East conflict
Middle Eastern carriers increased capacity after the U.S. - Israel war against Iran caused severe disruption. Airlines outside the Gulf are continuing to reroute routes between Europe and Asia, away from major hubs within the region. The latest flight information is listed below alphabetically: AEGEAN AIRLINES The largest airline in Greece will resume flights from Athens to Tel Aviv on April 28. Flights from Heraklion and Rhodes, as well as Larnaca and Rhodes, will be resumed on May 21. Thessaloniki-Tel Aviv flights are cancelled until June 26. Riyadh will resume its flights on May 21. The flights to Beirut will be cancelled until June 26. Flights to Dubai will be cancelled until June 29. Erbil, Baghdad and Baghdad are also affected until July 2. AIRBALTIC Latvian airline airBaltic has announced that flights to Tel Aviv are cancelled until 28 June. Dubai flights are cancelled until 24 October. AIR CANADA The Canadian carrier has canceled flights to Tel Aviv, Dubai and Abu Dhabi until September 7. AIR EUROPA Spanish Airlines has cancelled all flights to Tel Aviv till May 31. Air France-KLM Air France suspends its flights to Tel Aviv, Beirut and Dubai until May 10. KLM suspends flights to Riyadh and Dubai until the 14th of June. CATHAY PACIFIC Hong Kong Airlines has suspended its flights to Dubai, Riyadh and cargo freighter service to Dubai and Riyadh up until May 31, and until June 30, respectively. In April, the airline will increase passenger flights from London to Paris and Zurich to meet the increased demand for travel to Europe. It intends to continue operating all scheduled flights after June. The U.S. carrier cancelled flights between New York and Tel Aviv, and delayed the start of Atlanta-Tel Aviv until September 5. The launch of the Boston-Tel Aviv flight, scheduled for late October, was delayed. EL AL ISRAEL AIRLINES Israel's carrier announced that it will continue to expand its operations and, from April 27, operate flights to approximately 40?active Gateways. All flights to Dubai have been cancelled until May 31, 2019. EMIRATES The UAE airline announced that it will be operating a reduced schedule and flying to over 100 destinations. ETIHAD AERWAYS The United Arab Emirates carrier announced that it operates a commercial flight schedule from Abu Dhabi to around 80 destinations. FINNAIR The Finnish airline has cancelled all Doha flights up to July 2 and continues to avoid the airspaces of Iraq, Iran Syria, and Israel. The airline will only resume its Dubai flights by October. British Airways, owned by IAG, will reduce?flights in the Middle East once services resume. Jeddah?will be permanently dropped as a destination. Plans to reduce service to Dubai, Doha and Tel Aviv from two daily flights to one daily flight by July? Riyadh service will be reduced from two to one daily flight from mid-May. The changes will apply until the end of the summer season on October 24. One Dubai service will restart on October 16. Iberia Express, the Spanish low-cost carrier of IAG, has canceled flights to Tel Aviv until May 31. JAPAN AIRLINES Japan Airlines has suspended its scheduled Tokyo-Doha and Doha-Tokyo flight until June 1 and until May 31. The Polish airline has suspended flights to Tel Aviv till May 31. The airline also cancelled flights from March 31 until May 30 to Beirut and Riyadh. The airline will operate its winter route from Dubai to October. LUFTHANSA GROUP Lufthansa has suspended flights from Switzerland, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and Edelweiss to Dubai and Tel Aviv till May 31. The suspension of flights to Abu Dhabi is in effect until October 24, as are flights to Amman, Beirut Dammam, Riyadh Erbil Muscat and Tehran. Eurowings, a low-cost carrier, has suspended flights from Tel Aviv to Beirut until May 11, Erbil and Beirut until May 14, and Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Amman to?October 24. ITA Airways has extended the suspension of flights from Tel Aviv, Riyadh, and Dubai to May 31. MALAYSIA AIRLINES Malaysian Airlines has suspended all flights to Doha through June 14. NORWEGIAN AIR Low-cost airline 'has delayed the launch of its Tel Aviv and Beirut service to June 15th. PEGASUS Pegasus Airlines, Turkey's national airline, has cancelled all flights to Iran, Iraq, Amman Beirut, Kuwait Bahrain Doha Dammam Riyadh Dubai Abu Dhabi Sharjah and Abu Dhabi until June 1. QANTAS Australia's flag airline is adding more flights to Rome and Paris in response to a surge in demand for European destinations. The number of flights to Paris is increasing from three to five per week, and the Perth to Singapore service will go from daily to ten flights a week. A new schedule will be implemented gradually for flights starting in mid-April, and running until late July. QATAR AIRWAYS From May 1, the carrier will resume daily flights to Damascus and Bahrain, as well as Kozhikode. Qatar Airways has announced that it will expand its international flight network from June 16 to more than 150 destinations. ROYAL MAROC The Moroccan carrier has announced that flights to Doha and Dubai have been cancelled until 30 June. SINGAPORE Airlines In response to increased demand, the carrier has extended its Singapore-Dubai suspension until May 31. TURKISH AIRLINES SunExpress - Turkish Airlines' joint venture Lufthansa has cancelled flights from Dubai to May 21. WIZZ AIR Low-cost carrier suspends flights from Europe to Amman, Dubai and Abu Dhabi until mid-September. All flights to Medina are suspended indefinitely. (Compiled by Josephine Mason and Jamie Freed. Elviira Louma, Tiago Branao, Agnieszka Olesnska, Bernadette HOG, Boleslaw LaSocki, Romolo Tosiani. Rod Nickel and Lisa Shumaker edited the book.
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FedEx and UPS promise to refund tariff refunds to their customers
FedEx and UPS, the two largest parcel delivery companies in the United States, said that they would refund any tariff refunds to customers on Tuesday as the U.S. Government began reclaiming the levies illegally collected. Last week, thousands of 'companies' rushed to submit claims following the launch of a system to refund tariffs to companies by the U.S. Government. The U.S. Supreme Court, in?February, struck down the tariffs that President Donald Trump sought under a law intended to be used in times of national emergency. This was a crushing defeat for the Republican president. Around $166 billion of U.S. tax collections could be refunded. Tariffs imposed by the Trump administration have disrupted global trade and affected earnings of a variety of companies including logistics providers. UPS CEO Carol Tome stated in an investor call after earnings that the company collected tariffs worth about $5 billion from its customers. "We are working closely with Customs Border Protection in order to obtain these refunds. We are working with the U.S. Tome said that the U.S. government should not be sued. She added, "We believe it will take some time before the Treasury sends us money. But as soon as it does, we will remit that money?right to our customers." FedEx also said it would refund customers "as quickly as it receives refunds from CBP." (Reporting by Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)
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JetBlue to increase fares and reduce capacity as fuel costs rise, causing a quarterly loss
JetBlue Airways announced on Tuesday that it will slow hiring, reduce?capacity, and raise fares in order to lessen the impact of rising jet fuel prices. The carrier reportedly reported a larger first-quarter loss which threatens to derail its turnaround efforts. Joanna Geraghty, CEO of JetBlue Airways, said that the airline has also suspended its previous full-year forecast due to external factors. U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz. This has disrupted nearly a fifth of world oil and gas supply. Fuel costs are on the rise, and this puts pressure on smaller carriers such as JetBlue. They have less financial flexibility, and they're more exposed to uncertainty. Geraghty stated that the three main levers at our disposal are to adjust fares in order to align them with input costs, to moderate unproductive capacity, and to pursue?additional savings opportunities. The carrier's shares were up over 4% late in the morning as it saw its pricing power improve during the quarter. This was due to strong demand, its expansion into Florida and strength in the premium segment. JetBlue will continue to seek ways to improve its revenue performance for the remainder of the year. The airline said it plans to reduce capacity further during shoulder and off-peak periods during the second quarter, and the last half of the year following the peak summer travel season. JetBlue also said that it will slow down hiring in order to meet capacity expectations. It expects to save money on landing and maintenance fees by reducing flying. The airline expects to recover 30% to 40% of increased fuel costs by the second quarter and all of them by early 2027. The New York-based airline expects to see an average fuel cost per gallon between $4.13 and $4.28 during the second quarter. This compares with $2.40 a gallon in the same period of last year. Revenue per available seat mile (a metric that is commonly used to measure pricing power) increased by 6.5% during the same period. "While the demand outlook ?is encouraging and JetBlue ?is doing everything it can to manage (costs), we expect concerns around the competitive implications of a White House bailout of the ultra-low-cost-carrier segment to weigh on the shares," TD Cowen ?analyst Tom Fitzgerald said in a note. The airline stated that it would continue to expand in South Florida regardless of any potential bailout for?Spirit Airlines. It has also taken advantage of the gate availability. Geraghty said to employees that JetBlue did not consider 'bankruptcy', according a memo viewed by?. He added the carrier had access to additional capital and ample liquidity. The airline secured a $500m debt financing commitment with the option to raise $250m more using additional planes as collateral. JetBlue's adjusted loss per share was 87 cents, while analysts expected a loss of 71 cents.
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Ryanair boss: Risk of jet fuel shortages in Europe is receding
Michael O'Leary, CEO of Ryanair Group, said that the threat of a 'jet fuel shortage' in Europe because of the Middle East conflict is receding. Fuel companies have informed the airline that they do not see any risk of disruptions until the end June. He predicted that Ryanair would be able to lower fares by using its fuel hedging positions. O'Leary warned in April that the jet fuel supply into Europe could be disrupted as early as June if the conflict did not end by this month. Fuel companies are more confident now than they were a week or two ago, O'Leary said. In an interview with Reuters, O'Leary said that the risk of a disruption in supply was receding. He cited a Monday?conference call held by all of their suppliers across Europe. He dismissed a warning issued by Sweden on Tuesday about a possible shortage of "jet fuel". NO SUPPLY DISSRUPTION BEFORE JUNE. "A month back, we said we'd be fine until the end May. O'Leary stated that the?fuel companies now say they see no risk of supply disruption until June. He said that Britain was the most vulnerable market due to its high oil imports from Kuwait. He also said that the risk has receded, and that the oil companies that Ryanair works with have stated that they will step in if Kuwait runs out. O'Leary stated that while demand for last minute bookings was stronger than expected in April and may, it was "a bit weaker" between June and September. This prompted the airline to lower certain fares to stimulate interest. FARES UNDER PRESSURE DOWNWARD He said that Ryanair would also continue to keep the downward pressure on prices in order to put pressure rival airlines, whose fuel costs were not hedged as far as Ryanair. He said that average fares would therefore not grow by the 4-5% forecast previously, but instead remain flat in the financial year ending March 2027. He said: "If I were to guess today, and if I were to guess completely, I would say that our original planning predicted fares going up by 4, 5%. I think we're moving towards a kind of 'flat' fares compared with last year. He added, "We'd still be very profitably if the fares were flat in this year." He added that if the Middle East conflict ends quickly, "fares may rise by more than three or four percent". Reporting by Gwladys Fauch in Oslo; writing by Padraic Hapin; editing done by Sarah Young and Keith Weir
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Germany talks to Poland about oil supplies after Russia announces a halt in supply
Germany and Poland are in discussions to see if short-term replacement oil can be delivered to the PCK Schwedt refining plant via Gdansk port after Russia announced it would stop the supply of Kazakh oil through the Druzhba pipe. A spokesman for the German Economy Ministry said that this was the case. The spokesperson said that the talks were in progress and refused to give any details. She noted that the supply contracts are between the companies concerned, but the government was closely following the process. A spokesperson for the Polish energy ministry stated that the country has the technical capability to handle these deliveries and any possible increase in volume depends on operational, logistics and market factors. Russia announced that it would stop supplying Kazakh crude oil to Germany via the Druzhba Pipeline on May 1. This will force a major refinery near Berlin to make up for the shortfall. Kazakhstan's oil exported to Germany via the Russian pipeline amounted to 2.146 mt, or 43,000 barrels a day last year. This is a 44% increase compared with 2024 and 730,000 tonnes in the first quarter 2026. (Reporting and writing by Holger Hansen, Friederike Heine and Madeline Chambers, editing by Madeline Chambers).
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UPS maintains full-year revenue targets, but says that fuel prices spike from the Iran war could affect demand
United Parcel Service reiterated on Tuesday its full-year target for revenue despite a projected?return of growth in the?June quarter. This was due to soaring fuel costs resulting from?the U.S. war with Israel in Iran, which put an improvement in their business at risk. The largest parcel delivery company in the world forecast revenue of $89.7 Billion for 2026, an increase of 1.2%. UPS shares, which are regarded as economic indicators because they include customers such as retailers, factories, and prescription drug manufacturers, fell by 5.2% during early trading. Shares of rival FedEx fell?1%. "It's early in the year, and there's a war in Middle East." Carol Tome, CEO of Carol Tome Inc. said that high gasoline prices may?potentially affect demand towards the year's end". UPS charges a fuel surcharge for packages moving on planes and vehicles, protecting its profits from price increases. Brian Dykes, CFO, said that the surcharges would boost revenue, but costs are also higher. Dykes stated that "we don't view this as a windfall." UPS and FedEx, two U.S. logistics firms, have seen their volume drop due to changes in U.S. Trade Policies. This includes tariffs on products from China and key exporting nations as well as the removal of duty-free treatment "de minimis", which was previously applied to low-value ecommerce shipments linked to China-linked discount retailers such as Shein or Temu. UPS has decided to deliver millions of packages fewer for Amazon.com as it eliminates work that is 'weakening profits. UPS CEO Tome stated that the company will return to revenue growth and profit growth in the second quarter, due to the transition from lower-paying shipments to higher-paying premium shipments as well as the cost-cutting measures it has taken recently. UPS has been cutting thousands of jobs over the past year as it increases automation at sorting centers in an effort to reduce operating costs. Atlanta-based UPS reported Tuesday adjusted net income per share of $1.07, compared to $1.49 a share a year earlier, but surpassed analysts' expectations of $1.02 according to data compiled LSEG. The quarterly revenue dropped 1.6% to $21.2 Billion. The core domestic segment saw a 6.5% increase in revenue per unit. Analysts have said that the domestic segment of the company, which is its top revenue generator, has missed their expectations. Jefferies stated that the segment's operating margin was 4%, which is at the lower end compared to its expectation of 4%-5%.
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Sweden warns of possible jet fuel shortages, but Ryanair CEO mocks it
The Swedish energy minister warned Tuesday that there could be a shortage of jet fuel due to the Middle East war. He advised travellers to plan with some flexibility. Michael O'Leary dismissed the warning as a misunderstanding. He is the CEO of Europe's biggest airline by passenger number. The Strait of Hormuz has been closed by a two-month Middle East war, which has cut global oil supplies by 20%. This is the biggest ever supply disruption. The Swedish government has said that there is a good supply?of jet fuel in the country, but there may be a shortage in the future. "We want to warn well in advance of the possibility that there won't be enough jet fuel," said Energy Minister Ebba busch at a recent press conference. "In 'Sweden and the Nordic region, we have a considerable refinery capability that uses North Sea oil. "Even though prices and competition have increased, the supply has not been significantly affected yet," she said. GOVERNMENTS ARE LATE AND WRONG,' SAYS RYANAIR BOSS When asked about the comment, Ryanair's O'Leary replied: "As always, governments are late and incorrect." He said on the sidelines a business meeting in Oslo that he thought the risk of an interruption of supply was receding. Busch advised Swedes to keep an eye on developments and be flexible with their travel plans. Don't plan trips that require you to return home by a certain time. "It's good to consider that you may need some margin," she said, stressing this wasn't a recommendation against travel. Caroline Asserup, Director General of the Energy Agency, said that Sweden could face rationing in the worst case scenario. However, the future depends on the market's ability to adapt, she added. However, the government said there was no evidence that Sweden is facing a "shortage" of either petrol or diesel. The Middle East conflict is not going to end soon, and economies all over the world are preparing for its?long-term effects, which include higher inflation rates and slower growth. Ulf Kristersson, Prime Minister of Sweden, said at a press conference that Sweden is less affected by the conflict in the Middle East than other countries because it generates electricity without fossil fuels. The government has warned that the economy is likely to be severely affected. (Reporting and editing by Terje Sollvik, Keith Weir, and Gwladys Fouche, with additional reporting from Gwladys Fouche, in Oslo)
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Standard Chartered provides $2.33 billion in funding for Tanzania Railway
Standard Chartered Bank announced on Tuesday that it had successfully arranged a $2.33billion syndicated finance facility?for a Standard 'Gauge -Railway?Project?in Tanzania. The money will be used to finance two stretches on a planned 1,219 km rail line linking the port and commercial capital of Dar es Salaam with?the lakeside town of Mwanza. The bank said that Yapi Merkezi, a Turkish company, and China's China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation would be responsible for the work. The bank added that funding was obtained from commercial banks, export credit agencies and development finance institutions. The bank said: "The construction of the Standard Gauge Railway and its modernisation will provide a reliable'mode of transport for people and cargo' between the port of Dar es Salaam and key growth corridors of western Tanzania and neighboring states." The SGR will stimulate economic development in the interior areas of Tanzania. Tanzania aims to build a modern rail network of at least 2,561 km connecting its 'East African country' with landlocked neighbours Rwanda Burundi Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo.
Lagos, Nigeria's commercial hub, is betting on local power when the grid fails
Lagos is betting that Nigeria’s chronic electricity shortages can be solved outside of the national grid. The state's energy commission said the state would scale up its state-backed power production and distribution once it secured 400 megawatts in new supply.
Nigeria's grid is struggling, and the largest city in Africa is pushing ahead with reforms that will allow sub-national governments regulate power. According to the data of?the power regulatory, at least 22 states are also setting up electricity market to reduce dependence on the centralised system Abuja.
Biodun Ogunleye, Lagos' Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, said this at a BusinessDay conference on Tuesday.
According to government plans, the grid in Nigeria delivers 3,000 MW of power on a "good" day. This is far below the estimated demand of over 30,000 MW. Businesses and households are forced to use diesel generators.
Lagos implemented its electricity regulation regime in June 2025, and transferred the oversight of intrastate electric matters from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission to the Lagos State Electricity Regulatory Commission. Officials said that by the end of this year, Lagos had taken full control of its electricity markets, making it the first state in Nigeria to do so.
In a circular issued last year, NERC stated that state regulators will oversee intrastate electric matters while it retains responsibility for interstate transactions,?national network operations and industry standards.
Lagos has signed agreements to purchase power from Fenchurch Power, Mainland Power, and Viathan Engineering Limited for up to 400 MW of electricity to be supplied to public facilities in three years.
Ogunleye said: "These PPAs are not the usual business as usual." They represent a fundamental change in the way Lagos purchases and pays for electricity.
Officials said that Lagos has scrapped the "take-or pay" and "deemed-energy" provisions which required payment even when electricity was not supplied. Instead, it will only pay for "metered electricity" provided, they added.
Analysts say state-level power markets would improve reliability, but not remove other constraints such as gas supply, foreign currency exposure, affordability and transmission bottlenecks.
Bola Adigun is a partner with Deloitte Nigeria. "Capital is readily available but revenue assurance remains a challenge," he said. Isaac Anyaogu reported. Mark Potter edited the article.
(source: Reuters)